Allergy Testing & Treatment

Most allergy care is thought of as symptom management — sneezing, itchy eyes, a runny nose. But for a practice built around nasal and sinus surgery, allergies matter for a more specific reason: chronic allergic inflammation in the nasal lining can cause ongoing congestion and swelling that persists after rhinoplasty or functional nasal surgery, sometimes mimicking a surgical problem when the underlying cause is actually unmanaged allergy.

Identifying and managing allergies before nasal surgery, and continuing to manage them afterward, is a meaningful part of protecting a good breathing outcome — not a separate concern from it. This is part of why Dr. Kim, with his ENT-adjacent surgical training, offers allergy testing and treatment directly rather than referring every patient elsewhere.

Medication — steroids, antihistamines, and anti-inflammatory agents, in pill, nasal spray, or eye drop form — reduces the body's inflammatory response to an allergen and is the fastest way to control symptoms, but it treats the reaction rather than the underlying sensitivity.

Immunotherapy works differently: by gradually increasing the dose of what you're allergic to, it retrains your immune system to stop overreacting to that allergen in the first place. It's tailored to your specific test results and can be delivered as a weekly in-office allergy shot (SCIT) or as an at-home pill or sublingual droplet (SLIT) — each has tradeoffs in convenience, evidence base, and typical insurance coverage, which we'll walk through based on your lifestyle and preferences.

Immunotherapy is a longer commitment than medication — typically a six-to-twelve-month build-up phase followed by a maintenance phase that runs three to five years — but for the right patient, it can meaningfully reduce symptom severity and medication dependence for years afterward, sometimes indefinitely, rather than simply managing symptoms one season at a time.

The two allergen categories we see most in our office are animal and food allergies. An estimated 160 million people are allergic to pet dander — the hair, skin flakes, saliva, and urine that carry allergens, along with pollen and dust trapped in an animal's coat. Food allergies and intolerances, meanwhile, affect nearly everyone to some degree over a lifetime, with milk, eggs, peanuts, soy, wheat, tree nuts, and shellfish among the most common triggers.

In Central New York, seasonal environmental allergy exposure follows a fairly predictable calendar: tree pollen typically peaks in April and May, grass pollen in June and July, and ragweed from August through October, with indoor and perennial allergens like dust mites and pet dander present year-round. Knowing where you are in that calendar helps us time testing and treatment planning around when your symptoms are likely to be worst.